Yeah. I'm not dead. Believe it or not. I've just been the busy bee of late moving to a new place and getting some things in order. Plus this is the time of year for graduations and a lot of family things. Hell I managed to attend two graduations in one day. It was a horrible amount of sitting without a DS.

But I think things will be settling down now for at least a couple weeks -- outside of a planned trip to Kansas City the second week of June. So hopefully I can get back to posting a bit more.

And I do have new 'features' coming soon but dang, pretty much everything I come up with has or is being done by someone else at the moment. And now Ghost does Destructoid: The Collectable Card Game. That'll be hard to top. But just shows the strength of the community here -- all the great ideas.

One of the things that kept me busy the past couple weeks is my best friend moved away and helping him do so. I'm talking my best friend. Like no one's even close on the scale. He's like the brother I never had and in the few days without him, it's felt quite weird and empty. And not a whole lot of fun. I love the guy as much as a guy can love another guy in a non-homosexual way.



I've never enjoyed online gaming. I hate prick kids and I don't have the time to game where as those spoiled fuckers have just about every hour that they're not in school to 'train' and I just wind up realizing how much I suck. I think we all have lamented how awful the little turds are on Halo and XBLA. If we're leaving the world in the hands of their generation, I almost hope we blow it up before they get the chance to. Ugh I'm sounding old, but yes, I stay completely away from all online aspects -- although I have recently started to go online with Mario Kart and Brawl lately because there's no voice chat. Too bad there's enough lag that a match I started last week in Brawl is just about now finishing.

But I've also never have had to online game. The people I love the most and want to game with well -- I do it next to them and it's just amazing. There's nothing like getting a group of people over for a gaming party. I haven't been to any of the NARPs but I imagine they are 10x more amazing, and these gaming parties are pretty damn amazing in their own right.

But now I'm one of two people in my little 'clique' (for a lack of a better term) that has decided to stay in the city we grew up in. Everyone else now has moved on to forge new paths in new cities. It took seven years after high school but the group finally has disbanded. The only other one remaining really isn't into gaming much beyond Dr. Mario and MVP 05. And he also works some hellish 60 hour weeks as a big time manager. Really the only time I see him is Tuesday nights.

So I finally turned to online gaming this weekend. The dredded Halo 3, which might be where my problem stems but it was the only game we all had (me having to jack a co-worker's 360 for the night. To that he's like the most awesome person I've ever worked with. Too bad he is in fact a douchebag when it comes to game choices) and well it was fun -- and I still suck when the game involves shooting something....but something just felt flat.

Granted we didn't have to bother with split screen or the stupid mechanics of Mario Kart and Mario Party, but there was something missing just not having everyone in the same room. It was great to hear some people's voices again and to catch up on a few people, but I'd rather do it over Contra or at 3am ass-drunk at Denny's.

Though on a side note I learned two things I probably would have rather not have wanted to know. Two people in the group are getting married. One I have known for 20 years....and its this weekend and I was never sent an invite and I assume its because of his fianacee, even though I've only met her probably less than a dozen times. I was invited after it came out but its short notice to travel up there (granted its only three hours away) and I was incredibly hurt at the time.

The other one getting married -- is getting married to another friend's sister. Which is weird enough as it is. But then you throw in the fact that we were like 8 when she graduated high school....yeah. And Ben's two years younger than the rest of us. So double yeah. I'm not freaking out about it as much as I was when I heard the news but somewhere in the back of my head I just ask myself -- when we were running around the house and terrorizing this girl when younger, did she know she was that one of us was going to be her husband someday?

But yes, they're both mature adults now and have developed a special relationship as two adults. Twelve years difference in age shouldn't matter and I can't be more happy for them. Hopefully I'm at least invited to this one.

But in the end, the whole online experience just isn't as forefilling. Or maybe it's the fact that after the night was all said and done, I had fun but just missed these people from my life too much. I'm happy that they're all off being successful finally and are happy in their own lives -- and I'm not saying I'm not happy in my own life -- but I just got caught off guard by how much I miss the 'good ole days.' Having this little get together and having my best friend leave, just they hit pretty hard.

At least most everyone will be up for Memorial Day and to see my new place, so I've got to start setting up the entire weekend's list of games, as well as the food list.

Though I have the general list already -- the same shit we always play -- I'm going to leave the floor open for suggestions for both games and food.

And should I be mad and hurt about being left off the invitation list? Because that one is still really bothering me.